About Us

American Indian Special Emphasis Program

“Halito” (Hello) to you all! Welcome to the NRCS – Louisiana American Indian Emphasis Program web page.

The American Indian and Alaskan Native Emphasis Program Manager have a different set of criteria to deal with than other special emphasis programs. The 1964 Civil Rights Act does not apply to American Indians and Alaskan Natives. In order to be considered American Indian 1/32 of your ancestry must be Native American or Alaskan Native.

The program seeks to:

Support the unique role of American Indians and Alaskan Natives within the Federal Government system.
Recruit potential American Indian/Alaskan Native employees.
Develop mentoring processes among American Indian/Alaskan Native employees.
Build coalitions with appropriate advocacy groups.

About the Program Manager
	E. John Rogers District Conservationist American Indian/Alaskan Native Emphasis Program Manager USDA-NRCS/Sabine SWCD 290 Pico Street Many, Louisiana 71449 Phone: 318-256-3491 Fax: 318-256-0689 Email: john.rogers@la.usda.gov

I currently serve as the Native American Special Emphasis Program Manager for Louisiana and a District Conservationist stationed at the Many Service Center in west Louisiana. I am a member of the United Houma Nation, a Louisiana state recognized tribe that is seeking federal recognition, located in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. My NRCS career started in 1978. During my career with NRCS I have worked in Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.

November is American Indian Heritage Month
	In 1986, President Reagan designated November 23-30 as American Indian Week. Four years later, President Bush proclaimed the first National American Indian Heritage Month. Each year since, U.S. Presidents have proclaimed November as American Indian Heritage Month. NRCS celebrates American Indian Heritage Month every November. As part of this celebration, an American Indian Tribal artist is chosen each year to create a painting that will be turned into a poster. Choctaw Nation artist, Kathy Sturch depicts the passion the Choctaw people have for creation and their kinship with the earth in her painting “Touch the Earth,” which won the American Indian Heritage Month Poster contest hosted by Arkansas NRCS. (2008)
Click on image for full screen version in PDF format which requires Acrobat Reader.	2008 American Indian Heritage Month Poster (PDF; 494 KB)
New! Click here to see all the NRCS American Indian winning posters from 1991 to date

New! "Tribute to Edward S. Cutis" Slideshow

This slideshow presents some of the photographs taken by Edward S. Curtis who devoted 30 years to photographing and documenting over eighty Indian tribes, west of the Mississippi, from the Mexican border to northern Alaska. His project won support from such prominent and powerful figures as President Theodore Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan.
His work, “The North American Indian”, was completed in 1930 and consisted of 20 leather bound volumes, each containing 75 hand-pressed photogravures and 300 pages of text. Each volume was accompanied by a corresponding portfolio containing at least 36 photogravures.

The following document requires Acrobat Reader.

Indians of the Past: "Tribute to Edward S. Curtis" (PDF; 2.1 MB)

New! American Indian Heroes

The following documents require Acrobat Reader.

John B. Herrington (1958-) (PDF; 68 KB)

Jim Thorpe (1887-1953) (PDF; 55 KB)

Sitting Bull (1831-1890) (PDF; 82 KB)

A Cherokee Story

An elder Cherokee chief took his grandchildren into the forest and sat them down and said to them, “A fight is going on inside me. This is a terrible fight and it is a fight between two wolves. One wolf is the wolf of fear, anger, arrogance and greed. The other wolf is the wolf of courage, kindness, humility and love.” The children were very quiet and listening to their grandfather with both their ears. He then said to them, “This same fight between the two wolves that is going on inside of me is going on inside of you, and inside every person.” They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked the chief, “Grandfather, which wolf will win the fight?” He said quietly, “The one you feed.”

Image of wolf to illustrate Cherokee story

Choctaw Code Talkers

Legislation signed in October 2008 by President Bush week authorizes Congressional Medals of Honor be issued to the Choctaw Nation and family members of the 14 "Choctaw Code Talkers" from the Army's Thirty-Sixth Division. The "Choctaw Code Talkers" utilized their traditional Muskogean language/delivery methods to strategically hasten the end of World War l, defeat well seasoned German forces, and save numerous American and Ally troops in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign.

All of these men were serving in the same battalion, which was practically surrounded by the German Army. And, to make matters worse, it was common knowledge that the Germans had 'broken' the American radio codes and had tapped the telephone lines. The Germans were also capturing about one out of every four messengers sent out as runners between the various companies on the battle line.

The German code experts were unable to decipher this ancient Muskogean language that evolved in the SE region of North America and had also proved to be an important trade language in southern United States history and prehistory. Within 72 hours after the Choctaw language was pressed into service, the tide of battle had turned, and in less than 72 hours, the German Army was retreating and the Allied Forces were on full attack. Since this occurred at the close of the war, the Choctaw Code Talkers were apparently used in only this one campaign. The men were praised by their company commanders and the battalion commander thought these men were promised medals for their contributions to end the war, but they had never been received.........until now.

Choctaw citizen recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor include: Albert Billy, Mitchell Bobb, Victor Brown, Ben Caterby, James Edwards, Tobias Frazer, Ben Hampton, Solomon Louis, Pete Maytubby, Jeff Nelson, Joseph Oklahombi, Robert Taylor, Calvin Wilson, and Walter Veach.

American Indian/Alaskan Native Emphasis Program Newsletters

The documents listed below require Adobe Acrobat.

September 2008 Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 2 (PDF; 16.1 MB)

March 2008 Newsletter Vol. 1, No. 1 (PDF; 3.0 MB)

Louisiana American Indian Population and Tribes

Louisiana has the third largest American Indian population in the south behind North Carolina and Florida. The parish (county) that has the highest percentage of population of American Indian is Sabine Parish, while Terrebone Parish has the largest population.

The State of Louisiana has four Federally Recognized Tribes, The Chitimacha Tribe in 1925, and The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana in 1971, The Jena Band of Choctaws in 1999, and the Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana in 1981. The Chitimacha Tribe has a reservation in Charenton, the Coushatta Tribe in Elton, the Jena Band of Choctaws in Jena and the Tunica-Biloxi in Marksville.

The State of Louisiana has seven state recognized tribes, the Adai Caddo Tribe (1993), the Biloxi-Chitimacha Confederation of Muskogee (2004), the Choctaw-Apache Tribe (1978), the Clifton Choctaw (1978), the Four Winds Tribe (1997), the Point au Chien Tribe (2004), and the United Houma Nation (1972).